Participating in some workshops held by CERN added up my experience and knowledge. It becomes “a must” during my stay at CERN.

In this article, I will share about the workshop I have participated during my stay at CERN. The workshop was arranged by committee exclusively for CERN Summer Student. But, some of the workshops are available by request for the public visit. Because of the limited number of seat for each workshop, the summer student must reserve their place on the first-come-first-served basis. I only participated in the workshop which I was interested in, it did not take a lot of time, and it did not overlap with my meeting schedule.

“The workshops at CERN was adding more precious experience during my stay at CERN. It was a must”

The ROOT for Summies Workshop to introduce data analysis framework, ROOT, developed at CERN for its experiments.

The first workshop was Root for Summies. It was mainly an introduction to ROOT, a data analysis framework developed at CERN. This workshop was divided into several sessions so that the participant could also learn on how to use ROOT. Unfortunately, I only participated in the first session only. Basically, ROOT is an OOP program and library that was designed for high computing efficiency to handle the vast amount of data generated by experiments at Large Hadron Collider. It can handle big data processing, statistical analysis, visualization, and storage.

The next workshop is MadGraph workshop. MadGraph is a software used for high-energy physics (HEP), especially for particle colliders. Its framework provides all the elements necessary for Standard Model and Beyond Standard Model simulation. For example, cross sections computation, hard events generators and other relevant tools for event manipulation and analysis. The user requests a process (including hadron collider process) then MadGraph will return all subprocess, Feynman diagram, a function that needs to be integrated, complete package for event generation, and plots.

Our Particle Detector Engineer and Scientist ready to create a new particle detector!

In this workshop, I created a simple particle detector using Cloud Chamber. Cloud Chamber is a device that contains air or gas supersaturated with water vapor, and that is used to detect charged particles, X-rays, and gamma rays by the condensation trails that they produce (definition in English dictionary). In this workshop, the Cloud Chamber will be used to detect cosmic rays which are a high-energy subatomic particle that bombard the Earth from outer space every second. It is harmless and invisible, but we can detect the track of this particle using the Cloud Chamber.

The Cloud Chamber that I made uses evaporated alcohol and dry ice. The basic principle is as follows.

If air is saturated with water vapor and then cooled, tiny droplets of mist form around floating bits of dust or other material. They also form readily around ions; electrically charged atoms or groups of atoms. When a charged particle, such as a proton, passes through the chamber it leaves behind a trail of ions as it strikes molecules in the air along its path and tears away electrons. Mist droplets form around these ions, creating a cloud track.

The newly built Cloud Chamber was being observed in dark situation to make it easier to see the particle tracks.

The experiments at CERN generally generate gigabyte of data each second! This data must be processed and stored as fast as possible. Therefore, the computer network is a critical part of the computer system at CERN. It connects the data acquisition systems to a data center and anything in between. High-speed and reliable computer network is needed at CERN. In this workshop, I had a chance to learn computer system network and its implementation at CERN. For me, it was very fun to participate in this workshop.

I was ready for the first day of working at CERN, the world’s biggest particle physics laboratory. I could not wait to take a part in research that had been changing the world; the research that had been extending our edge of knowledge. The awesomeness part started here!

After long preparation, from submitting the application for CERN Summer Student 2014, searching for sponsors and funding, and preparing the departure, it was the showtime. I would go to Europe, joining CERN Summer Student 2014 with 200 others students from around the globe.

It had been almost two months since I submitted my application for CERN Summer Student 2014. It was also a very busy semester in my college which made me forgot my application. I also did not expect that my application would be accepted because I prepared it only in less than a week. But God always knows the best for me.

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